Kings of Cocaine is the most complete and revealing account ever of the Medellin cartel, the powerful Colombian narcotics organization that controls as much as 80 percent of the world cocaine market. Written by Guy Gugliotta and Jeff Leen, the Miami Herald reporters whose prizewinning series of articles broke the story, the book tells in full detail how a small group of young drug lords virtually created the international cocaine business by perfecting production and smuggling techniques at the beginning of the decade. Their success brought the cartel extraordinary wealth--as much as $8 billion a year by some accounts. With some of that fortune the cartel corrupted government officials in Columbia, the Bahamas, Haiti, and Panama, and secured the direct cooperation of high officials in Cuba and Nicaragua. Despite the recent conviction of smuggling chief Carlos Lehder in the United States, the cartel remains unvanquished, and its leading figures continue to enjoy lives of fabulous wealth.
The following excerpt (pp. 330-93) tells the extraordinary story of master cocaine smuggler Barry Seal, an American pilot who, in less than three years, made over $25 million shipping the cartel's white power, before turning informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Seal was the first informant to penetrate the inner sanctum of the cartel, duping its leaders and allowing the DEA to make spectacular seizures of drug cargoes. None of which prevented federal prosecutors in Louisiana from setting a legal trap for him which proved to be his final undoing.
To explore the book's significance and implications for federal policy, THE WORLD & I presents responses by two close observers of the drug war. First, Washington Times
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